shutter island notes
TRANSCRIPT
Shutter Island notes
EDITING
Match on action, reaching for the syringe.
CAMERA SHOTS/ANGLES/MOVEMENT
When DiCaprio climbs up there is a crane shot and zoom out showing his isolation. High angle on DiCaprio
when he confront his partner who turns out to be his doctor. Low angle when he sees his wife, he has the
power to change. Birds eye view shot with crane when he holds his dead kids, shows his insignifance and
how he has no power over it and can’t do anything. Canted angle on him waking up in bed.
SOUND
Silence when the wife and child are looking at him. Building score builds tension when he walks up to the
lighthouse, what could be hiding behind the lighthouse. When he opens the door the music stops. Diagetic,
ambient sound of the birds chirping in the flashback.
THEMES & MOTIFS
There are recurring themes of mental health and the treatment of the mentally ill. The film is unclear of what
things are real and not real showing how a person with the protagonist’s mental illness would feel.
SYMBOLIC CODES (including enigma and binary opposites)
Binary opposites of the clothes. The workers wear quite plain boring clothes. Smoke hides things, when
Kingsley talks about dicaprio not having a partner he is behind smoke. DiCaprio says he’s given up on
smoking showing he isn’t hiding behind it anymore and sees whats really happening. Twisted staircase in
the lighthouse, twisted mind. Repetition climbing up the stairs. Affectation of seeing the wife and child.
IDEOLOGY
Religion and spirituality, talks of moral order, humanity. When she sees his wife she is very brightly coloured
showing the good memories of her or possibly the good side of him. Contrasted to his daughter who is
darkly coloured.
LIGHTING
Chiaroscuro to show the contrast in good and bad.
NARRATIVE
The film contains non-linear narrative. Flashbacks of the protagonist’s family are used frequently throughout
the film. In the film, the audience doesn’t know what is real and what isn’t so the film isn’t clear about the
order of the narrative.
REPRESENTATION
Blur between reality and his mind. When the truth is revealed DiCaprio’s clothes is changed from white to
grey to present that he has converted to the ‘dark side’.
SETTING & MISE-EN-SCENE
Isolation, abandoned question what is hidden. Much walls in the hospital to hide what is really there. After
the reveal, order is restored and things are bright and clean.
MOOD & TONE
The feel has an unsettling, mysterious tone.
Foreshadowing:
Dicaprio’s character asks for a lighter on the boat foreshadowing that he is a mental patient because he has
to ask for a lighter. When DiCaprio is interviewing a patient he finishes her sentence. When the patient takes
a drink from water there is a short shot of her without the glass showing that it is all in DiCaprio’s head.